At the end of May 21, Altria Group (MO) was trading at $55.64, a decline of 22.1% from the beginning of this year. In Q1 2018, the company had posted adjusted EPS (earnings per share) of $0.91 on net revenues of $4.7 billion. Analysts were expecting EPS of $0.80 on revenues of $4.8 billion. Although Altria outperformed analysts’ EPS estimate, the stock price of the company declined due to a dip in cigarette shipment volumes of 4.2%. Also, the uncertainty surrounding the long-term potential of Philip Morris International’s iQOS has made investors skeptical about Altria’s future earnings.

The combination of rising interest rates and a stronger dollar is plaguing some asset classes and sectors. One of the epicenters of those woes may just be the consumer staples sector. Year-to-date, the usually docile Consumer Staples Select SPDR (XLP) , the largest ETF tracking the consumer staples sector, is lower by more than 13% and things have not been any better for staples funds in recent weeks.

Shares of household and personal care product manufacturers Procter & Gamble (PG), Clorox (CLX), Colgate-Palmolive (CL), and Kimberly-Clark (KMB) are underperforming the broader markets. Despite the fact that these companies have reported improvements in their volumes and earnings growth rates, investors don’t seem interested in giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Consumer staples has been the worst performing sector this year, falling 13% year-to-date, even as the S&P 500 has gained 1.5% overall. Despite the big drop, Credit Suisse downgraded consumer staples to Underweight in their monthly report today. Strategist Jonathan Golub points out the sector's weak fundamentals, including those narrowing margins and their lackluster revenues and earnings, and also highlights their valuations, which aren't exactly cheap.

To help investors keep up with the markets, we present our ETF Scorecard. The Scorecard takes a step back and looks at how various asset classes across the globe are performing. The weekly performance is from last Friday’s open to this week’s Thursday close.

The consumer staples sector has been a dud for much of 2018 and those struggles are continuing in recent days. For example, the Consumer Staples Select SPDR (XLP) , the largest ETF tracking the consumer staples sector, is down more than 6% over the past month, extending its year-to-date loss to over 13%. XLP provides “exposure to companies from the food and staples retailing, beverage, food product, tobacco, household product and personal product industries in the U.S.,” according to State Street.

The consumer staples sector is an important sector in the S&P 500 Index (SPY). It is also an important sector for investors due to its defensive nature. The Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLP), which tracks the performance of the consumer staples sector, fell 4.1% in April 2018, while the broader market S&P 500 Index (SPY) rose 0.28%.

With the start of the 1Q18 earnings season, last week was positive for the sectors in the S&P 500. The S&P 500 Index (SPY) saw a slight decline of 0.01% due to a fall in the technology, financial, materials, and industrial sectors.

With core inflation at 1.8%, it is likely that inflation achieves a “two-handle” (2%) soon, and rather than risk falling behind the curve, the Fed might tighten more aggressively. A February report by HSBC economist Stephen King identified all periods since 1990 in which the world economy has delivered synchronized growth. Mr. King finds that each was followed by some kind of economic or financial shock, attributed to excessive optimism and unanticipated shifts in monetary policy.

The 2 worst performers, consumer staples (the purple line) and real estate investment trusts, or REITs (beige line) have flopped 12.4% and 8.5%, respectively. Let’s start with staples, because folks who buy these stocks, which are often considered the pinnacle of safety, are setting themselves up for brutal returns—and even serious losses—as interest rates rise. First, look at yields: as I write, the Consumer Staples Select SPDR ETF pays 2.98%—practically the same as the 3.0% yield on the 10-year Treasury Note.

“Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.” — Mark Twain Tobacco settlement securitization bonds are issued by states to monetize future payments from tobacco companies to help defray ...

CVS Health (CVS) is slated to release its 1Q18 results on Wednesday, May 2, 2018. The pharmacy giant is expected to report a 19.7% YoY (year-over-year) increase in earnings to $1.40 per share during the quarter. Total sales are expected to come in at $45.8 billion, 2.8% more than the corresponding quarter last year. CVS outperformed Wall Street earnings and revenue expectations in all quarters of fiscal 2017.

Altria Group (MO) posted its 1Q18 earnings before the market opened yesterday. The company posted adjusted EPS (earnings per share) of $0.95 on revenues, net of excise taxes, of $4.67 billion. Compared to 1Q17, the company’s EPS grew 30.1%, while its revenue increased 1.8%.

To help investors keep up with the markets, we present our ETF Scorecard. The Scorecard takes a step back and looks at how various asset classes across the globe are performing. The weekly performance is from last Friday’s open to this week’s Thursday close.

The normally boring, defensive consumer staples sector has been anything but this year. The Consumer Staples Select SPDR (NYSEArca: XLP), the largest ETF tracking the consumer staples sector, is lower ...

What Do March Leading Indicators Signal for the US Economy? This trend makes changes to consumer goods (VDC) new orders a reliable forward indicator. According to the latest Conference Board LEI report, new orders for consumer goods and material increased to ~$139.1 billion in March compared to a revised February reading of ~$138.9 billion.

Consumer staples stocks and the related exchange traded funds have been anything but safe this year. For example, the Consumer Staples Select SPDR (NYSEArca: XLP), the largest ETF tracking the consumer ...

Yahoo Finance’s Seana Smith and Julia La Roche talk with Stefan Selig, former Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade, about whether or not the US and China will be able to reach a deal on trade this week.